Friday, April 24, 2009

Thursday, April 23, 2009

This is Bolero's running mate for favorite animated piece. I highly value music combined with animation. You can become absorbed in a world of movement fully when they are combined. Every Halloween I would get excited because I knew that this would be airing over and over for a whole week on tv. It kind of scared me, but not the demons, the silence and the bells were frightening. The part that always stuck out the most was the lesser demons shirking away in the dawn of the bells. They seem to suffer such deep aches.

I associate the Old Mill with Night on Bald Mountain because they would air together. I also very much love this short. Very tactile.

I did a light blue wash to tone down the purple lines. Then I added light blue highlights. Did a slight blue wash over those to darken them slightly. Used a white wash to add broad highlights on the neck and face to pop out the main form more. Then added more highlights and some pinks, also added some purple blue into the shadows and drew on scales. Last I added blue to the eye.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

If I could only have one piece of animation around to watch this would be it. Bolero from Allegro Non Troppo. I used to play this over and over and dance around a lot as a kid. It's a good long song, has sweet build up, and is effin' epic! When the ape discovers fire I crack up. When the twisters come I'm scared to death and sad. As the creatures are bewildered and destroyed by humanity I'm filled with pity. I always wondered if Gary Larson liked this piece.Also, I love Coke.

This came on after Bolero in the youtube playlist, and dang, it's kind of awesome.

Spent some time pulling out highlights and details on the dragons tonight. I'm having difficulties with the images flattening. I always struggle with values, because what I really want to do is draw instead of paint. I think the line work I paint in to reinforce the details I want is what kills this. Because the linework is all the same value it doesn't go back and forth with the form the way it ought to. Not painting lines with such a dark color so evenly will probably solve this problem. Actually doing it, that's a completely different matter! Theory isn't very practical unless you think about it as you do it.

I guess I do tend to think of lines as being dark. In truth lines can be any color or value. I'll try to keep that in mind going forward.

We've got a bunch of blooming cherry trees near our place. I really love the sudden change between winter and spring in Seattle.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Saturday, April 18, 2009

It is almost a toss up with My Neighbor Totoro, but Totoro is veeery slow, and in the end, I like a little more action and humor, AND SINGING!

I will never ever ever get tired of watching The Lion King and I get very bored very quickly when it comes to repetition. It's almost as flawless a movie as I could hope for and more importantly, it's still exciting!This sends chills and tremors through me:

The unapologetic nature of Scar is fantastic. He's scheming, but not very sneaky. The character flaws and naivety of the characters that surround him allow for his behavior, they just don't tap into what is going on at all, and it is hilarious! This also lets the performance be completely free and melodramatic. I love the absolutely annoying qualities of young Simba in this scene. I kind of want to push him off that cliff.

After Mufasa's death the way Scar deliberately echoes Simba's worst fears is soooo evil. It forces me to to want to like Simba because this guy, Scar, he's just awful, but I love the awfulness because it's so powerful. The clipped way Scar says "Kill him," is so good. Run baby lion!!!!! Get out of there! Also, just after Simba runs, the way Scar's expression is held, it's just wonderful. He looks like he's thinking, Well this is goin' perty darn good, and trying not to break yet. He still has to put on a show for everyone else.Skip ahead to 7:25

One of the reason's I dislike Simba as a character is because he never makes his own decisions. He is given ideas, but is completely uncreative, and only follows through on what ideas others have placed in his mind. What makes him interesting at all is his growth towards becoming a responsible guy.

This makes me want to barf every time. Baaaaaaaaarf I say. I don't think it's bad, it just makes me cringe and avert my eyes. I don't deal well with romance. Having said that, I'm not saying that this part should be removed, it's very good. It might not be sparking the strong emotion out of me they hoped for, but it's still sparking a strong emotion. Can't really argue with that.

I like Nala, but she is so dumb. Or maybe she just wants to be in a relationship with a guy she can boss around and be smarter than? You can do better girlfriend!

Friday, April 17, 2009

This I must have watched a 1000 times. I'd force people to rent it for me at BlockBuster or Turtles or Varsity Video. It's aaaallll about the diving otter, the race between the lion and the goat("Is this someone's twisted idea of strategy?!!!"), and the duel between the warthog and the falcon. Plus you can not argue with the sweet graphics and music! Also, it's a great video for character design. Really strong animal-human mixups used correctly to convey character.

Part 4 at 3:18 wait for the dancing alligator, you shall smile!Part 4 at 7:05 Rene's song is wonderful and sad. Maybe it's sappy, but effective.Part 7 1:12 I get fucking dream chills! Down, down, down, water, water, water!Part 9!! :50 The Contessa! I love her, I love the hog, it's all great.

Another favorite. Fantastic story and character design. I hate the butterfly so much. Every time his scene comes on I cringe. I think the music is really strong too. It's a thoughrough world. Part 3 5:10 The Harpy is one of the best creatures ever.